Custody issue for Kingstons put on hold

Heidi Mattingly thought her children would be back home by now.

Late Friday, a judge said it would be next month before she decides where the children will go.

Attorneys finished up closing arguments Friday night in a hearing over whether Mattingly has followed a court-ordered plan that would determine if the children she had with polygamist John Daniel Kingston should return to her home.

But 3rd District Juvenile Court Judge Elizabeth Lindsley declined to decide immediately after the hearing, saying it would be a disservice to the children to make a ruling before she has read all of the information and court documents. Instead, 10 of the couple's 11 children will have to wait until Aug. 15 — after the judge return's from vacation — to find out if they can go back home.

Mattingly was upset she didn't have closure on the lengthy child abuse case, which started in February 2004. The woman covered her face and cried outside the West Jordan courthouse after the hearing.

"Tomorrow I have to explain to a 12-year-old boy why when you be good and you do everything they ask you to do and it doesn't work, and I just don't know how I'm going to tell him that," Mattingly struggled to say as her emotions took over and tears streamed down her face.

Attorneys from the Office of the Guardian ad Litem, who represent the children, and the Utah Attorney General's Office argued that the judge should keep the children in state custody. Assistant Attorney General Carolyn Nichols has filed a petition to terminate Mattingly and Kingston's parental rights altogether.

Nichols said Mattingly does not recognize that she abused her children or that she was a victim of domestic violence at the hand of Kingston, although the court has found both abuses happened.

"If she can't recognize the problem, she can't change," Nichols said. "If she hasn't changed, her children are still at risk if they are with her."

The children have been in state custody since October. A judge first ruled in July 2004 that Kingston abused his children and that Mattingly failed to protect them from that abuse. Then, in January, Valdez ruled Mattingly also physically abused the couple's children.

Three children are currently back living at home with Mattingly. A court order bars Kingston with any contact with Mattingly or the children.

Kingston said it is his only hope that the children be allowed to return to live with their mother.